Journal #17 Peaceful Protests

I think that peaceful protests are not only important to the United States but, also very important to the whole world overall. There is so much violence in this world that whenever someone or a group of people have a violent or extreme protest it just adds violence into the already chaotic world that is not needed. Back in history, there have been many peaceful protests that have really helped for rights for people. Today peaceful protests are still popular with protests such as boycotts. Unfortunately, people also protest in violent ways in the present day world. One example of this is the war going on the Middle East where the Shiites and Muslims protest something very violently and with chaos. These very violent protests are not only dangerous for the protesters and whom they are protesting against but; they are also dangerous for the people around where they are protesting. In history, two very famous peaceful protesters were Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. These two men used non-violent and peaceful protests to get their point across and try to get the rights are things that they wanted. Gandhi wanted the British to leave India, so they could rule themselves. Gandhi demonstrated his dislike for British rule and how the people of India could run themselves, by using peace and trying to use as little of violence as possible. His famous quote “be the change you wish to be in the World” exemplifies everything that he stood for and is one of the most famous quotes of all time. Martin Luther King, Jr. is a more recent peaceful protester trying to get African American equal rights in America. In his time in America, black people and white people were segrated and forced to use different bathrooms, restaurants, etc. so they would not be close to white people. King tried to get equal rights by using peaceful protests, but these quickly turned violent because, of people attacking the protesters. Peaceful protests are very important and reliable; hopefully people continue to use these peaceful protests to get their points across.